Art Features

0 commentsRichmond’s 1708 Gallery recently showed a series of riveting photographs by Kimberly Witham, who collects road kill to take back to her studio, where she shoots close-ups of the deceased animals in...

0 comments“There's nothing new under the sun” and “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” are two sayings repeated whenever an artist’s work is deemed derivative. Any creative type— whether a painter,...

0 commentsEvery year when the Charlottesville/Albemarle High School Art Show goes up, I'm wowed all over again by Randy Bill’s students at St. Anne’s-Belfield School. Her pupils’ work expresses a mature...

0 commentsBetween giant sun flares and the recent “super moon,” not to mention new theorizing that life on earth sprang from space fungus, the cosmos has been making news lately. (And let’s not forget the...

0 commentsAlong with tulips and baseball’s return, the annual Charlottesville/Albemarle High School Art Show is one of the best things about spring. Currently on view in the McGuffey Art Center’s upstairs hall...

2 commentsReading the paper, cutting up vegetables, playing chess in the park, or just sitting on a fence— these are the everyday moments Joseph Holston abstracts in his etchings and paintings. But the...

0 commentsThe Villages at Staunton— such an inviting name for the hillside of grand brick buildings rising on the left as Rte. 250 approaches downtown Staunton. Now an upscale enclave of condominiums, the site...

0 comments“Show, don’t tell.” Every author knows this dictate by heart (whether choosing to comply or not). The visual artists showing work in Chroma Projects’ current exhibition, “Anthology: One Thousand...

0 commentsMost people know local painter Robin Braun for her realistic and evocative seascapes. Now and then, though, she returns to painting tiny scenes, viewed at ground level, where insects are the actors....

2 commentsNo artist works in a vacuum. Whether consciously or un-, artists constantly respond to a host of factors: exposure to other artwork, the immediate environment, ideas discussed with creative types,...

0 comments“You don’t have a southern bone in your body,” a friend recently remarked. She meant it as a compliment, but the truth is I consider myself quintessentially southern. I was born in Lexington, to...

0 commentsBethany Pierce is one of those people who make the rest of us— okay, I’ll just speak for me— look like talentless slackers. Not only is she the author of two critically acclaimed novels, but she’s...

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After watching Aaron Eichorst’s art evolve over several years, a few things have become clear. He finds the natural world compelling, from animals to flowers to bugs. He loves color. He doesn’t shy...

0 commentsThe latest Back Gallery exhibit at the Virginia Discovery Museum is not what people expect to find in a children's museum. In fact, the folks at the Smithsonian Institution, who created New Harmonies...

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If you haven't driven on Culbreth Road recently, you're in for a visual shock. Where once an empty hillside overlooked a little-used amphitheater, a 560-space parking garage now looms. Meanwhile,...

0 commentsTake a second to imagine the typical rock poster stapled to kiosks around town. What do you see? Let me guess– an image of a band, photographed from either above or below, artfully posed in...

0 commentsWhen it comes to misfortune, some people believe in the "rule of threes": one unexpected death foreshadows two more, and plane crashes always seem to happen in triplicate. Certainly, the rule held...

0 commentsRecently, while discussing a painting exhibition that didn't thrill me, someone dismissed my opinion by saying, "Well, of course, you don't like it— you only like representative work." I burst...

1 commentsLast winter, in one month Rob Tarbell was showing tongue-in-cheek porcelain sculptures at Second Street Gallery, and the next he was displaying ethereal smoke drawings at Les Yeux du Monde. No doubt...

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When you walk into the New Dominion Bookshop, take a minute to notice the black and white photograph in the left window. A quick glance yields nothing special– just a white cat sitting beneath...

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When I was little, my mom kept a large pair of red-handled scissors hanging on the side of a kitchen cabinet next to the refrigerator. I'm pretty sure they're still at my dad's house in Lexington,...

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Sometimes an artist simply needs to get out of the way of the work. That's the conclusion I reached after listening to Joel-Peter Witkin discuss his imagery during the Festival of the Photograph....

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Publicity photo
A teenage prostitute wearing a veiled Jackie O. pillbox hat. A young Indian circus performer gazing out from between her own feet. Photographer Mary Ellen Mark's most celebrated...

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Publicity photo
A teenage prostitute wearing a veiled Jackie O. pillbox hat. A young Indian circus performer gazing out from between her own feet. Photographer Mary Ellen Mark's most celebrated...

0 commentsPublicity photo
The second time I viewed photographer James Nachtwey's exhibition, "The Unvanquished," I was alone in Les Yeux du Monde, save for a Festival of the Photograph worker re-hanging a few...

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IMAGE COURTESY THE ARTIST
When giant whales swim through the trees on the Downtown Mall, it can only mean one thing: the Festival of the Photograph is back in town. The next few weeks offer the...

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Irwin Berman, MondrianPUBLICITY PHOTO
Readers who turn your nose up at crass puns, turn the page!
Consider yourself warned. As many of you know, since the end of last year, the s**t has hit...